Body:
Read Mark 9:18-29
G. His Previews.
1. Of His Glory. In this first section of this lesson of the Gospel of Mark we see at the bottom of the mountain, there is a crowd gathered around the other disciples and a demon possessed boy. Jesus casts out the demon that His disciples could not handle. He tells them that this type or work requires prayer.

Applications –
- Jesus' impatience. Notice in vs. 19 of the nineth chapter of the Gospel of Mark that Jesus appears to be losing patience with His slow learning disciples. He refers to them as an "unbelieving generation."

He does spend quality private time with them again in vss. 28-29. However, it cannot be ignored that to whom much is given much is required.

Some of us have been in church and in leadership roles for too long for us to be so immature and unknowledgeable.

Some of us have had too much invested in us for us to have to keep on preaching and teaching about love one another, stop being self centered, forgive, forbear, tithe, and serve.

Also, be faithful with your family duties, be a wise steward of your health and wealth, and be involved with your community. Not only is Jesus losing patience with His disciples, in our text, but God may be losing patience with many of us.

Let's work on growing up, so God will not lose His patience with us. Prayerful study and obedience with the support of other believers will help us tremendously, in this area.

- The safety of our children. In nineth chapter of the Gospel of Mark notice in vs. 22 that the devil/unclean spirit was trying to kill the child.

The devil is still trying to kill our children. Drugs, violence, ungodly sex, and moral decay are tools that the devil uses to kill our children and us.

Whatever pleasure we gain from the devil's agenda is only the cheese in his mouse trap, and we are the mice. Let's do what we can to keep the devil from killing our children. In this regard, we should strive to raise our children in the Lord.

We should do all we can to lead them to Christ. We should do all we can to keep them in the church and help them grow.

We should support and demand quality children and youth ministry, which is so much greater than baby sitting or having fun. We should keep our children in prayer.

- Faith development. Notice in vss. 23-24 of this chapter of the Gospel of Mark that all things are possible with faith.

The father was honest in saying that even though he has some faith, there was some unbelief yet in him, and he needed divine help.

It is still true that God can do great things, if we would trust and obey Him. It is also true that even though we have a certain amount of faith, which may be simply knowledge, we often lack enough faith to please God.

Our prayer and efforts should be focused on replacing our unbelief with more working faith. The best way to defeat unbelief and to nurture our faith is to do what God says do.

This means we need to prayerful study to find it out, and make note of how God takes care of His own. As a swimmer develops confidence in swimming, by actually swimming, we develop more faith in God, by actually obeying Him.

We must obey even when we cannot see our way. Let's work on developing our faith.

- God's supreme power. In the nineth chapter of the Gospel of Mark notice in vss. 25-27 that God's power in greater than that devil's power and the opinions of people.

The devil wanted to kill the child, but God made him live. The people said that the child was dead, but Jesus treated him, as if he had simply fainted. As powerful as the devil and public opinion may be, let's keep our trust in the power of God.

We demonstrate who we believe in, by how we behave. When we continue to walk around in fear, we are demonstrating our faith in something other than God.

Those who trust in God walk in the reality that all things are working together for the good of God's people. All things include painful, dark, and lonely situations as well.

- Being prayed up. Notice in vs. 29 that Jesus taught the need for prayer. The later manuscripts that the KJV was translated from includes prayer and fasting.

The point seems to be that the disciples were trying to casting the demon out with their own power, instead of calling on the power of God.

They seemed to have gotten to the point of taking God's power for granted and not being prayed up like they used to be. If we are not careful, we can become guilty of the same.

Let's make sure we stay prayed up, so we can be effective in what God is calling us to do. To be prayed up means to be regular in prayer and reflecting on God's will for our lives.

It may even call for special seasons of prayer and reflecting for special circumstances. However, no amount of prayer will move God from doing what is best for us, which may include some hard and difficult times.

Being prayed up did not stop Jesus from being in the wilderness nor from being crucified. Both of these were necessary parts of God's plan.

Read Mark 9:30-32
2. Of His Death. In this section of the Gospel of Mark Jesus arranged private teaching time with His disciples. He told them again about His dying and being resurrected. They did not understand and were afraid to ask.

Applications –
- Giving leadership to our lives. Notice in vss. 30-31 of this section of the Gospel of Mark that Jesus gave leadership to the affairs of His life.

He knew that His time on Earth was ending and that He needed to invest quality time in His disciples. So He secluded time with them for teaching.

He shares with them several times what is going to happen, so when it happened they could handle it better. Let's work on giving leadership to our lives.

Instead of sitting back and reacting to what happens to us, let's learn to plan our work and work our plans for doing God's will.

If we know that we need to be trained to do something then we need to seek out the training opportunities and get trained. If we know that we need a medical procedure done then we need to do our research and get it done.

If we know that we need some bad influences out of our lives then we need to work on getting them out of our lives. If it is going to be then it is up to you to get things done in your life.

A part of our proactive leadership should include preparing loved ones and those who are depending on us for our inevitable date with death.

We all must leave here one day. Therefore, we should make plans and review the plans with key people, so when it is time, people will be better able to handle the shock and carry on with God's will.

Conclusion: Let's work on being servants of God. God has much for those who obey His will.